Various surgical procedures are routinely carried out intravascularly or intraluminally. For example, in the treatment of vascular disease, such as arteriosclerosis, it is a common practice to access the artery and insert an instrument (e.g., a balloon or other type of catheter) to carry out a procedure within the artery. Such procedures usually involve the percutaneous puncture of the artery so that an insertion sheath may be placed in the artery and thereafter instruments (e.g., catheters) may pass through the sheath to an operative position within the artery. Intravascular and intraluminal procedures unavoidably present the problem of stopping the bleeding at the percutaneous puncture after the procedure has been completed and after the instruments (and any insertion sheaths used therewith) have been removed. Bleeding from puncture sites, particularly in the case of femoral arterial punctures, is typically stopped by utilizing vascular closure devices.
Prior closure devices, such as the ones described in the above-mentioned patents, place a sealing plug at the tissue puncture site. Deployment of the sealing plug involves ejecting the plug from within a device sheath and compacting the plug down to an outer surface of the tissue puncture using a compaction member. After the sealing plug has been compacted, the suture is manually cut by the operator at a location outside of the patient. There is a need for improving the mechanism and method for cutting a suture of the closure device after compacting the sealing plug with a compaction member.